Manufactured Heroes, Artificial Martyrs
If you stick around in gender critical spheres long enough, you’ll begin to see a theme of transgender ideology and activism being likened to a religion, or more often, a cult. At the least, it is very much comparable to religion, barring the fact that transgender advocates worship no central god(s) and many of them claim to be atheist.
Like Christianity’s Heaven versus Hell, God versus Satan, transgender ideology has its own version of good versus evil - transactivists versus “TERFs”. Like the Church, transgender advocates believe in blasphemy, and they excommunicate those who commit such sins, by kicking them out of their movement and slandering them. And like many major religions, transgender ideology has its martyrs.
But wait - the word martyr means “a person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs”, doesn’t it? The transgender population’s murder rates are actually low - how many people have actually been killed for believing in transgender ideology, or for being trans themselves?
Not many. Which is why the movement has to create its martyrs, making them out of ordinary trans people who died deaths unrelated to their identities or beliefs.
The first example of this martyr-fication is someone known only as “Malte C”. A trans-identifying woman (or transman), she was attending a pride parade in Münster, Germany, on 27th August 2022, when she noticed a man verbally abusing a lesbian couple and intervened. The man hit her twice, knocking her to the ground with the second blow and rendering her unconscious. Malte was place in a medically induced coma, but unfortunately passed away just days after the attack.
Outrage was immediate, with condemnations left and right, and a vigil took place on the evening after her death was announced. But among these condemnations were accusations that this was a hate crime against Malte due to her transgender identity. As rumors began to spread that this was a transphobic attack, many activists found a way to pin the blame on radical feminists and gender critics, with some going as far as claiming “TERFs” were celebrating her murder. Of course, this was largely not the case - radical feminists expressed their sympathies while pointing out that this was an act of male violence against a woman.
Malte’s death had nothing to do with her identity and everything to do with the violent man who would have committed the same crime even if she had identified as female. However, because she identified as trans, her death was automatically assumed to be due to this.
On the afternoon of 11th February 2023, a trans-identifying boy (or transgirl) was found stabbed in a Warrington, England park. 16-year-old Brianna Ghey was initially discovered alive, but he would pass away at the scene not long after. Two suspects, a 15-year-old boy and girl, were arrested in connection with the murder. Police initially said there was no evidence that the murder was a hate crime, but walked this back not long after and assured that “all lines of inquiry are being explored”. As of writing, a motive has not yet been established, but it should be noted that knife crimes are common throughout the country, usually resulting in stabbings during fights or from random chance. It is likely that Ghey was another unfortunate victim of this.
As with Malte C., activists immediately jumped to the conclusion that his murder was driven by transphobia, despite police advising to avoid speculation. Yet again, they went straight to blaming feminists and gender critics for the attack, though this time, they went after figures such as JK Rowling and the British government. Flyers around vigil locations alleged that Brianna was “murdered for being trans in public”, and again blamed the aforementioned parties.
Ghey’s death may or may not have had anything to do with his identity, but still had everything to do with the two other teenagers who murdered him. However, because he identified as trans, his death was automatically assumed to be due to this.
Edit: as legal proceedings in Ghey’s case have proceeded, it has come out that his attackers enjoyed watching torture and snuff films online, and discussed killing other children before ultimately settling on Ghey. It is extremely unlikely that his murder had anything to do with his identity.
Julie Berman’s murder is a slightly older case of false martyrism. A prominent transactivist who spoke out against homicide, he himself was attacked in Toronto on 22nd December 2019, and passed away after being rushed to a hospital with extreme head injuries. Colin Harnack, a 29-year-old man, was taken into police custody shortly after and was charged with second degree murder. Harnack was convicted of this charge in December 2022 and was sentenced to life in prison this past March, though he will be eligible for parole in 2035.
Despite Harnack’s social media history suggesting he was supportive of transgenderism, activist cries of transphobia and bigotry were rampant, with one person even referring to Berman's murder as a “lynching”. The expected blame was placed onto radical feminists, and a few trans advocates lashed out at JK Rowling, who had come out in support of Maya Forstater just three days prior.
Berman’s death is unlikely to have anything to do with his identity, and had everything to do with the man who killed him. However, because he identified as trans, his death was automatically assumed to be due to this.
These are all (relatively) recent examples of transactivists’ martyr-making, but this process of creating heroes for their movement has gone on for many years. The most notable example is Marsha P. Johnson, who activists claim was the transwoman responsible for sparking the Stonewall riots in 1969. However, in an interview just days before his death, Johnson would call himself a boy and a transvestite, and he is also on tape stating that he didn’t arrive at the Stonewall Inn until 2:00 AM. Stormé DeLarverie, a butch lesbian and drag king, is credited by many to be the person who kicked the riots off.
Similar to the posthumous baptism of the Mormons, transactivists have come to declare gender identities on the behalf of deceased historical figures. Being transgender has been described as one’s internal feelings which cannot be known by others at a glance, hence having to ask someone their pronouns when you first meet. Yet, these activists seem to know people like statistician Florence Nightingale, Civil War soldier Jennie Hodgers, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, musician Kurt Cobain, and more, well enough that they’re able to declare them to be trans. This is not just applied to real people; fictional characters such as Mulan, or Josephine and Theodore from Little Women, have been subject to the same treatment (despite there being societal explanations for the latter two examples). Interestingly, the book’s author, Louisa May Alcott, has also been declared to be trans, with some of the “proof” for this being an out of context quote which suggests she was a lesbian instead.
Perhaps the most egregious example of posthumous transition is that of Joan of Arc, a woman who famously hid her sex and led the French to several victories against the English in the 1400s. She was captured, tried on 70 charges including blasphemy, and subsequently burnt at the stake, later becoming a Catholic saint. Six hundred years after her death, she has not only been hailed as a trans icon, but has had a play written around her life in which she is depicted as nonbinary.
You may have noticed a pattern in some of the above examples. A few were women who felt pressured by the misogynistic society they lived in, and one in particular was most likely a lesbian. Some were gender non-conforming, or generally androgynous, such as Kurt Cobain - and androgyny was a staple of 1980s celebrities, not just him. Posthumous transgender identities are almost always bestowed upon famous figures, with no ordinary citizens ever said to have a special gender identity.
Watching the posthumous trans-ing of historical figures is somewhat fascinating, in a morbid way, because it has you thinking: How? How can they possibly be so stupid as to say that a woman who wished she was male is not a victim of a patriarchal society? How can they look at someone who wears clothes traditionally worn by the opposite sex and conclude that this does make them the opposite sex? At the same time, it’s disheartening - they are desecrating the image of someone who can’t object because they’re dead, and often times taking role models away from young girls, all to bolster their movement and its claim that “trans people have been around forever”.
The martyr-making process is just as disrespectful. Soil is still fresh on the victim’s grave when the activists jump to conclusions about the cause of their death and blame people who condemn the murder. It’s likely traumatizing for the families of the deceased as well, seeing the community which their loved one was a part of hurling accusations at people who had nothing to do with the violence, ignoring the true assailant.
Knowing all of the above, it’s hard not to ask: Who will they do this to next?